"I heard this loud bang. I live in a 24-story building on the 23rd floor. All of a sudden, I look up and the lights are shaking, and I hear car alarms going off. It was incredible," said witness Michael Garnett.

The meteor has done a lot of damage, blasting out countless windows in a city in the Ural Mountains.

A health official said nearly 1,000 people got treatment for injuries with more than 40 in the hospital.

Amateur video showed an object speeding across the sky just after sunrise, leaving a thick white contrail and an intense flash.

Asteroid flies by Earth

A University of Louisville professor said the meteor was in no way related to an asteroid that whizzed past earth Friday afternoon traveling about eight times faster than a bullet.

The two made for a once-in-a-lifetime astrological event.

Tim Dowling, who is in UofL's physics and astronomy department, said while there's no connection between the two because the meteor and asteroid came from different directions, he's astonished just the same.

"I woke up this morning to see a big asteroid to come by. We've been expecting that for awhile, but I was surprised to see this explosion in Russia," said Dowling.

Dowling, like many, has been closely monitoring what happened in Russia and said he was amazed with the number of videos posted on the Internet.

"Here it comes, boom. Look at that. So that's called a fireball," said Dowling.

Dowling said the meteor that lit up the Russian sky, causing damaging sonic booms, weighed about 10 metric tons.

"Most of the shooting stars you see, those are pea-sized to about fist-sized. They never make it through (the atmosphere). The explosion in Russia that happened hours ago, didn't actually hit the ground," said Dowling.

NASA's Near-Earth Object Program tracks thousands of space rocks, but not meteors as small as the one in Russia. Experts have known for some time an asteroid was coming Friday, weighing 190,000 metric tons, it zipped by Earth Friday afternoon, the closest in recorded history.

"This asteroid came inside the satellites, actually gets 17,000 miles to Earth, closer than the satellites," said Dowling.

He also pointed out while the Near-Earth Object Program monitors asteroids 100 years out, scientists are worried about what they can't predict.

"The comets come in with no warning. They actually cause the most concern, long term," said Dowling.

According to Dowling, a human has never been killed by a meteorite.

It's a very rare occurrence, but things flying through space have been known to slam into our planet.

Collision Course: Earth Impacts Throughout History

Collision Course: Earth Impacts Throughout History

An asteroid half the size of a football field, will have a close encounter with the Earth on Feb. 15. NASA said there is no chance that the asteroid will slam into the planet, but it will pass closer to the Earth than the moon.

Throughout history, there have been encounters with comets and asteroids that are believed to have severely disrupted Earth's environment and might have caused mass extinctions of life.

Most of the major impacts on Earth have come from asteroids. Most that have entered our atmosphere have burned up before impact. It's been awhile since an asteroid of any size made it to the ground. The last object that was at least six miles across hit the planet 66 million years ago.

Debris from comets is believed to hit the Earth at one time or another, but there is no firm evidence that an entire comet has slammed into the planet.

In 1994, debris from Comet Shoemaker-Levy 9 did have a close encounter with Jupiter. The brown spots on the above image of the giant planet are believed to be scars from the impact.

The moon is much more vulnerable to things flying through space since it has no atmosphere. It's estimated that there are over 300,000 craters that are at least one kilometer wide, are visible from Earth telescopes.

The Barringer Crater east of Flagstaff, Az., is one of the more dramatic impact craters on the face of the earth. It's 4,000 feet wide and 570 feet deep. Investigators believe the crater was created about 50,000 years ago by a meteorite about 50 yards wide.

The Henbury Meteorite Conservation Reserved in northern Austrailia contains twelve craters created when a meteor broke up before impact. Scientists believe the event took place about 4,000 years ago.

Lonar Lake in India was actually created by a meteorite around 500,000 years ago. The crater is just under 6,000 feet in diameter.

The Tunguska event took place not that long ago. There is not crater associated with the event, but it's believed a meteoroid or comet exploded six to 10 miles above a mountainous area of Siberia in 1908. The blast leveled an estimated 80 million trees, covering a 803 square mile area.

The Manicouagan Crater in Quebec is one of he oldest known craters on Earth. Investigators think a three-mile wide asteroid slammed into ground 215 million years ago. It created a crater that's 60 miles wide.

The Vredefort Crater is the largest known impact crater on the planet. Located in South Africa, much of the crater has eroded away. An asteroid estimated to be as large as six miles wide hit the Earth four billion years ago, creating a crater 186 miles wide.

The Sudbury basin in Ontario was created by a huge asteroid and is the second-largest impact crater in the world. Scientists think the object may have been nine miles wide and broke up after impact. Rock fragment associated with the asteroid have been found as far away as Minnesota. Much of the oval-shaped crater has eroded away and is about 160 miles at its widest point.

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